Dear Sir/Madam,
In regards to the below complaints we would like to update you that we opened our savings bank account with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ground Floor, Mayur Garden, G S Road, Guwahati, Assam – 781005, India only upon getting assurance that we would be offered a Kotak Mahindra Bank Family Savings Account (Silk - The Savings Programme for Women) where we would only be required to maintain minimum balance of Rs. 10,000/- (In Words:- Ten Thousand Only) in one of the primary savings bank account only.

It is very same shameful fact that we are getting mail and SMS to maintain a minimum balance of Rs. 10,000/- and are being told that the family accounts were opened under edge category with AMB requirement of Rs. 10,000/- and no promo code for family accounts was given which are duly signed by the customer (us).

Bank Charges still have not been reversed for my connected family account bearing Account No. 9312381593 & 9312381586 and still Bank Charges are being levied in spite of having maintaining sufficient balance in my main account no. 0511731141. Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited has been found negligent in rendering services and have not complied with RBI Guidelines and Rules in regards to levy of Minimum Balance Charges. It also has been found guilty of misselling its banking products and services and making false assurance and claims to sell its products and services to the customers.

We would like to inform you your Kotak Mahindra Bank officials are misleading customers for opening accounts, making false claims, for fulfilling own financial gains at the cost of the customers. It seems that customers everywhere are paying a hefty price for their blind trust in companies with strong brand images. Kotak Mahindra Bank officials are taking undue advantage of the brand name to influence the customers and makes a strong pitch in favor of the Kotak Mahindra Bank Products to the customers. Kotak bank is a fraud, is doing clear injustice with the customers. We the customers are depositing our hard earned money in banks to keep it safe and bank itself is eating away our money. Hats off to banks like Kotak in India, poor Indian laws and poor common man of India.

Let us remind you of the IBA Code for Banking Practice:-
“Objectives
The Code is intended –
• to promote good banking practices by setting out the minimum standards which Member Banks will follow in their dealings with customers;
• to foster customer confidence in the banking system;
• to inculcate self-discipline amongst Member Banks with a view to promoting healthy competition and ethical practices in respect of banking services.”

Kotak Mahindra Bank Officials are fooling, cheating, misleading customers by giving false claims in regards to opening savings accounts so as to fulfil own targets and gains at the cost of the customers as evidenced from our case and many cases like us.

If someone makes a misleading or false statement about a product, it tantamounts to mis-selling, as do omitting or concealing material facts and associated risks about an investment product. We visited branches of several banks, including PSU outfits, foreign banks and new generation private banks. However, the modus operandi has not changed. Bank officials still try to mislead people into buying products they don’t need. Bank Officials does so because banks set stiff sales targets for relationship managers, forcing them to push products that fetch higher commissions instead of products and services that suit the customer’s needs. Most of the mis-selling happens at foreign banks and new generation private sector banks. The relationship managers are trained to stonewall any question from the customer.

In one case, one customer wanted to invest Rs 5 lakh in a fixed deposit in a foreign bank, the salesperson started pushing FDs from NBFCs. “The interest rates offered by these deposits are much higher than what our bank offers,” she said. What about the risk, I asked. Without batting an eyelid she said the FDs she was offering were from ‘reputed’ NBFCs and there was little chance of default. This comes right after the IL&FS fiasco.

Banks were found pushing sub-optimal, or risky products—most common was the push for Ulips—as a substitute to not just FDs but to the Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme (SCSS), term insurance and gold bonds. Even granting bank lockers was subject to preconditions—investing in FDs, opening a savings bank account, buying insurance.

The below is one more case with Mis-Selling Bank Lockers:-
Since the demand for bank lockers is much more than their supply, most bank branches tie them up with some investment product even though the RBI has asked banks to stop this practice. The first co-operative bank one customer approached gave them the stock reply: “There aren’t any lockers available.” But then a bank official dangled a carrot: “We are planning to increase the locker capacity and you may get at that time. First you open savings account and then give us the application for a locker. We will give lockers based on first come first serve basis.” The PSU bank when approached demanded that customer open an FD of Rs 2 lakh to be considered for locker allotment. “We have few lockers and will give them only to premium customers. Either you open a new FD with us or start a savings account with higher average balance,” the official said. A new generation private sector bank was even more demanding and wanted the customer to purchase a Ulip with annual premium of Rs 1 lakh to get a locker. The senior official wouldn’t even entertain customer’s request to put money in FDs or invest in mutual funds to get a locker and insisted on Ulips.

Most of the Bank’s sales-focused culture elevates the risk that employees may flout consumer protection rules. Targets and financial incentives had contributed to a culture in retail banking that heavily emphasized sales, and that oversight measures to protect consumers were not sufficient. This environment increases the potential for mis-selling products and services that may be incompatible with consumer needs and financial situations, as well as breaching market conduct obligations. Banks’ increased focus on sales and advice in their branch and call-centre operations — sharpened by technological advances — have outpaced controls to mitigate the risks of rule-breaking or selling customers products or services they may not really want or need. Financial and non-financial incentives may heighten the sales-related risks. Compensation programs with variable pay as a significant component can lead to mis-selling because employees may look to increase sales to maximize their commissions or rewards. While employees who don’t hit sales targets aren’t generally fired, they do receive coaching or training, and those who stick around or get promoted tend to be those who thrive in a workplace culture focused on sales. Moreover, a recent shift towards “more customer-centric sales practices” is still primarily aimed at helping employees nail down sales opportunities. Banks have also outsourced sales of credit cards and other products to third parties with weaker oversight and sales targets that could encourage the use of “high-pressure tactics.”

There are “numerous instances” of inadequate investigations of consumer complaints as well. This followed a recent report by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, which can investigate the complaints of customers who weren’t satisfied with the banks’ internal dispute-resolution system, that found its banking-related complaints increased last year.

To be fair, not all bank employees are bad apples. We had also very much good experience with some other Nationalized and Private Banks.

Bank employees roam everyday around the customers when customers have large amount of cash lying in their accounts. As soon as cash is no longer available they cannot be seen anywhere nearby.

Again bank can now claim that the customers (we) have signed on various forms as given to us at the time of opening of accounts. That’s true but let me tell you that all the customers’ signs all the forms in good faith and trust only and as per verbal & telephonic conversation had with the officials and nobody tries to read each and every terms and conditions as mentioned in the forms. Customers trust the words and assurances of the officials only.
So we can now see that the end customer cannot do much in the court of law as there is no evidence of assurances given by the bank officials and court will only consider our SIGNATURE on the Forms only as an agreement.

Time is now for RBI to change/update the old rules and guidelines and ensure that Banks needs to record in facts and proofs that the customer has been properly and completely made understood and guided all the terms and conditions of the banking products and services before taking up the banking products and services so as to avoid generation of cases like ours. In this way fraud banking officials will not be able to misguide any customers easily and cases like ours will not arise. All Telephonic calls had with the customers should be recorded and preserved for future references. All CCTV footages should be recorded as well.

Kotak Mahindra Bank and all other banks must should properly train and guide all its officials to follow all the rules and good practices which are supposed to follow. It should be implemented on ground level. Formally Signing of code of conduct on paper should does not serve the purpose unless everyone follows the same on the ground level. Banks should set up a formal framework to oversee sales practices, that oversight of consumer complaints be improved, and that compensation strategies for employees are geared towards the interests of consumers.

How, Where and when do these objectives of promoting ethical practices in respect of banking services do Kotak Mahindra Bank Officials Performs? How it is being checked?

As per any our experience is concerned with the Kotak Mahindra Bank and many other Nationalized and Private Banks, it is only ensuring its financial gains out of all these and does not care about customers at large. Kotak Mahindra Bank has nothing to do with any ethical practices.

So This Is The Real Ethical Practices Of Fooling, Mis-Selling, Mis-Leading Followed By Kotak Mahindra Banks Officals.
We would like to put the said branch officials put to lie detector test to bring out the actual truth.

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